A Way of Seeing Dick Cheney for What He Is

[babylonsister]

http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/2030/1/

A Way of Seeing Dick Cheney for What He Is
Written by Andrew Bard Schmookler
Friday, 27 July 2007
by Andrew Bard Schmookler

snip//

The question is, what is it they want the power for?

With Dick Cheney, now we know. We know that for six years he’s been wielding, from his position as Vice President, practically presidential powers. And now we can see what he’s been so eager to express in the world through access to the most potent levers of American power.

And what an ugly picture it is.

Angry. Dismissive. Dishonest. Secretive. Unrestrained by respect for any limits to his power.

He shows no sign that he regards the power he wields as something he holds in trust, no sign that he regards that power as imposing upon himself any commensurate responsibility. As far as he’s concerned: THAT POWER IS HIS! It’s not something we have bestowed on him.

For us, he has only contempt, having fooled so many millions of people into thinking that he somehow had something to do with righteousness, something sober and careful, something competent and trustworthy.

That power he’s wanted all his life he now wields in ways that reflect clearly the spirit that drove him. Making war, based on lies, where no war was warranted. Torturing people. Tramping the rule of law.

Now we see what has driven him. We see the dark picture of a man with a sick lust for power and a capacity to make a mess of everything he touches.

We see, in other words, the workings of evil.

[oldtime dfl_er]

1. Insane megalomania

God, in a way I guess we're lucky he hasn't nuked some poor nation yet.

http://www.cafepress.com/scarebaby/1097640

[Sarah Ibarruri]

2. I've never understood that.

Why do evil men continue to do evil even to their last moment of life Look at Cheney. His heart is a frikkin' mess. He's had multiple heart operations, has a pacemaker, he's a medical mess. And yet he doesn't miss 1 opportunity to do evil.

Look at Tony Snow. Sick as can be, getting sicker all the time, and yet he continues to lie for Cheney.

I don't understand powerful men that do evil to their dying breath.

[Jackpine Radical]

3. Do you think either of them might have one of those deathbed moments

like Lee Atwater did?

[Sarah Ibarruri]

4. I doubt it. I think sociopaths never have deathbed moments....

....they just scream for help while trying to kill others.

[Jackpine Radical]

6. I'm pretty inclined to agree, but I thought Atwater

was a pretty fair psychopath himself.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

7. I don't think Lee Atwater had a legitimate deathbed moment.....

.....Here's what I believe happened with that @$$hole Atwater. I think sociopaths, more than other people, never believe they will die. He may have been grasping at straws when he "turned" religious and maybe hoped the formula to being saved from death was to claim to be sorry for the evil things he did to others. I don't for 1 minute think he was sorry. I just think the man really didn't want to have to give up his fun life doing harm to others. I honestly believe that's how sociopaths are. Selfish to the last breath, even in what may not seem to us as a selfish act.

[Jackpine Radical]

8. I'll buy that.

Your description of psychopaths is quite accurate. They show no physiological response (electrodermal, EMG, heart rate or whatever) to the threat of punishment. And, of course, they're always "finding Jesus" in jail. I just watched a guy I had diagnosed as a psychopath get sentenced to 24 years today, as a matter of fact. Before the sentencing he read the judge a statement about his wonderful religious conversion and how he shouldn't be held to account for that reason.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

12. Good point.

I think psychopaths "find Jesus" as a way to get out of jail fast so they can resume their life of evil. Same with sociopaths that are dying. They "find Jesus" as a way to stop their death.

I don't think non-sociopaths cannot find religion. I do think they do. However, it's very different from when a sociopath finds religion.

[Jackpine Radical]

13. Every time one of them finds Jesus in jail I comment,

"How interesting. What's Jesus in for?"

[Sarah Ibarruri]

15. ha!

I'll have to use that one next time. :-)

[MasonJar]

5. I'd have to throw the little dictator in there too. After all, he in his own

inimitable, incurious, narcissistic and sociopathic manner allowed Cheney to do as he willed.

[gulliver]

9. I think Cheney classifies himself as a predator.

People are very little different from the birds he hunts. He just basically wants to shoot them and bag them. He doesn't want to stalk them or even control a dog. He wants to shoot, bag, and brag. He loves only his own kind. The rest are prey animals.

[Lindsey]

10. When discussing him with friends, we've come to the conclusion that

he's a non-human. His sickness regarding power is off any chart I could imagine. He is without emotion. I don't see any light in him and I try hard in my spiritual practice to see the light in people. Now I just make it a point to never see his face. I hope they do an autopsy on his brain after he dies.

[reprobate]

14. I'd rather they do an autopsy on his brain BEFORE he dies. Much more satisfying that way.

[ixion]

11. predators live for the hunt, which Cheney does not...

he likes his prey slow moving and stupid, vis a vis the Texas Quail Hunting Incident. You've got birds that have been raised on an enclosed property. There's no 'hunt' to it. There is walking down to a field, drunk, with a shotgun and knowing exactly where the quail are. This doesn't really qualify as a 'hunt' in my book, but something more akin to a 'body count' massacre.